Galveston Half Iron Man (Page 11)

Good points Erin.

I'm never doing a full but have read stories where they ran out of hydration on the course and people saying you should be responsible to carry everything you need. There is also the issue of people not being good at hand ups so they bring everything they need with them. What if your system cannot handle that Ironman Gatorade and need some other form of nutrition? I think everyone needs to do what is right for them.

It's more of a backup really to some extent.  The 2 extra bottles in the back have my nutrition mix in them, also one in the front.  I  only have one bottle out of the four with water, which is the one I change out at aid stations.  I can't handle gatoraide, isopure I believe is the name, and have'nt practiced yet with IM proform. I ran through my nutrition mix bottles though, I guess I use those vs salt tabs and gels.  I get all I need from them.

I have had the rocket launchers for about nine years now. I have dropped only one bottle in a race back in 04 at Cap Tex in Austin when I hit a pothole. I spent the rest of the race worried I was going to get dq'd as the RD said they were pretty strict on the trash rule.

I have noticed two things about the rear bottle holders over this time. One is that the bottles pointed at an angle are far more likely to work their way loose than vertical. And the other is that the cheap plastic or metal cages are almost always the ones launching bottles.

I picked up some carbon cages that have rubber retainers in them and they work great even on the roughest roads. They cost me 25.00 a piece and I have yet to lose a bottle in two years.

I am comfortable with the rear cages as it is pretty much all have ever used. To grab a bottle or put on back is as much a reflex as shifting gears or braking. Or for that matter reaching down to my frame. But I do see your point and I have seen plenty of wobbly attempts at handups and folks reaching for bottles on hills and curves where they really should wait until they can do it safely.

On the Sherpa syndrome, I agree with you 100% I carry one bottle of water for my eyes and head and another bottle of whatever I am drinking. I don't use the aerodrink anymore as I don't like it between my hands. Especially in a race like Sunday where there were a lot of hand-ups, this was more than enough. But as other posters have said, to each his own and they should run with what makes them comfortable. We have all seen the runners at 5ks with an eight bottle fuel belt on.

All that being said, I have never seen as much bottle trash on the roads as I saw on Sunday. It literally looked like the day after an outdoor concert in some places. I even saw one poor guy lose an entire X-lab rear cage assembly, probably 150.00 in gear when it just left his bike. One guy coming towards me after the turnaround had his head down and came within about 2 inches of running over a full large bottle that was rolling his way from the opposite lane.

For the sake of safety, please pay attention to your equipment and your gear. If you have ever hit a bottle at any speed, you know how dangerous it can be. And if you haven't raced in a race with hand-ups before, as many haven't, practice on your street with someone. I am surprised there weren't more accidents than there were.

Congratulations to everyone out there Sunday. And best of luck on your next races. And whatever you do, only wear your Camelback on the dirt. But that's a completely different rant.

You're misreading my point.  That was for the argument that people "need" an extra bottle of water to get from aid station to aid station.  Two bottles ~ 40 oz.

I wrote this in my earlier reply: "Beyond being completely unnecessary for the vast majority of people..."

You obviously don't fit the mold of the majority of people.

A lot of good points, and perspectives, about the bottles. For century rides and very long training rides and the IMFL in November, I will carry 3 bottles which are Infinit-mixed nutrition, and the aero bottle solely for water. With the ride my strongest component of the three, I prefer to minimize my stops. I will carry additional powder mix in a ziploc for additional bottles, or put them in the special needs bag. A lot of folks do a concentrated bottle and others of just water, but I haven't been able to nail down the ratio of concentrate vs water. The mixed-to-drinking-state works really well for me nutrition-wise so I am very hesitant to mess with it.

And I have a LOT of practice putting the bottles back in the seat-back. I only pull one out to switch front-to-back. extra rubber bands will help keep them in place as well.

Well, I'm glad most everyone had a great race, I felt really bad for those who got a flat or crashed. Those were my biggest fears.

I thoroughly enjoyed my first HIM and will probably do "Oil Man" (PLEASE change the stupid name!) formerly Iron Star in November.

I too have a very small frame that won't fit bottles, and I understand the dangers of the bottles, especially in the portion on the course that were really bumpy before and after the bridge. But I really liked being self sufficient on my bike (I have had friends do races where they ran out!) and the bottles had my nutrition in it, and I can't do Gatorade. So, what's one to do?

Can you not concentrate your nutrition mix into one bottle?

The key to concentrating Infinit is to dial down the flavor slider so that it doesn't taste so strong when super concentrated.

Smart choice in switching to Infinit.  It's an easy all-in-one (and totally customizable) solution.  The one big problem with the Hammer products is the need to use different products for different things.  It gets too complicated as your case points out -- se this first, than I'll use that.  I'm a big fan of keeping things as simple as possible... the KISS philosophy.

The second problem with Perpetuem is it gets nasty, and does so quickly.  It doesn't have much of a "shelf life" once mixed.  Heed doesn't have the same spoilage issues.

Good point.  I've been thinking about putting a side-loading cage on my torpedo mount.

Hold on a second....

I was just reading some of the posts from a few pages back.  There was some lady who wore her wetsuit on the run?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Did she also have it on during the bike?

I'm surprised the officials didn't make her take it off.  That's all kinds of dangerous.  She must have been blazing hot.  How did she not heat stroke her way to the hospital.

I'm sort of speechless.

I don't know what to say.  Wow!

Toe warmers on her shoes as well?  She did realize it was 80 degrees out, right?